What is The Space? Well you know that podcast you like where some bloke (and it’s usually a bloke) interviews some minor celeb? Well, it’s a bit like that except you are sitting in the Latest Music Bar basement watching the minor celeb being interviewed. In the flesh. And you can ask questions.

I have been to a few of these events and they are generally interesting, if you are into the interviewee in question. First one I went to was Fat Boy Slim where they discussed his career and his love of Brighton. Second was a double bill of film make Julian temple and Alex Patterson form the Orb. Both had punk roots even if they went in different directions. The host Wayne may not be a deep dive expert in everyones career but he asks good questions and gets the celeb to open up.

The events took a bit of a hit during covid, what with the Latest Music Bar basement not being that well ventilated. As a result Wayne has started a crowdfunder to help get things going again.

Personally I think it would be best to go the podcast route. Maybe set up a Patreon where you can get tickets for the recording or pay a cheaper option to download it later. Maybe with the option to send in questions. This is essentially what Richard Herring is doing with his Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. Why limit yourself to the number of people you can fit in a basement when the whole world is out there.

FWIW they have had some big names. A list of the people interviewed so far includes;

MUSIC: Fatboy Slim, Slade’s Noddy Holder, Radiohead’s Philip Selway, Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis, Gaz Coombes of Supergrass, Skin of Skunk Anansie, producer Trevor Horn, Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters, Badly Drawn Boy, Steve Morris of New Order, Lyricist Tim Rice, Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, Mark Bedford of Madness, Goldie, Nitin Sawhney, Jeff Wayne (The Musical Version of The War of the Worlds), Suede’s Mat Osman, Martin Fry of ABC, Nik Kershaw

FILM: Directors Mike Leigh, Alan Parker, Nic Roeg (Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth), Mike Hodges (Get Carter, Flash Gordon), John Glen (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill), Screenwriter William Nicholson (Gladiator, Thirteen Lives, Shadowlands), Ben Wheatley (Sightseers, Kill List, High Rise), producers Gary Kurtz (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, The Dark Crystal), Eric Fellner (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually, Atonement), Alison Owen (Saving Mr Banks, Suffragette, Shaun of the Dead), editors Terry Rawlings (Alien, Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire), Mick Audsley (Twelve Monkeys, Interview with the Vampire, My Beautiful Laundrette), costume designers Jany Temime (Skyfall, Harry Potter, Gravity), Deborah Nadoolman Landis (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London), visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin (The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, Inception), critic Barry Norman, composer David Arnold (Casino Royale, Independence Day, Stargate)

ACTORS: Terence Stamp, Robert Lindsay, David Morrissey, Jane Horrocks, Paul McGann, Steven Berkoff, Maxine Peake, David Warner, David Prowse, Julian Glover, Ralph Brown, Burt Kwouk, Mark Gatiss, Colin Salmon

TELEVISION: Producers Simon Heath (Line of Duty, Bodyguard), John Lloyd (Blackadder, QI, Not the Nine o’clock News, Spitting Image), Gub Neal (Cracker, Prime Suspect), Brian Cosgrove (Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Jamie and the Magic Torch), Philip Hinchcliffe (Doctor Who 1975-77),  Jon Plowman (Absolutely Fabulous, The Office, The League of Gentlemen), Charlie Parsons (The Word, The Big Breakfast) and Tony Garnett (Cathy Come Home, This Life), Dom Joly, best known for Trigger Happy TV, presenter Gail Porter, directors SJ Clarkson (Life on Mars, Dexter, Ugly Betty, Jessica Jones), John Howard Davies (Fawlty Towers, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Goodies), costume designer Annie Hardinge (Humans, The IT Crowd, Extras), writer Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty, Bodyguard)

OTHERS: Comedians Frank Skinner, Barry Cryer, Rhona Cameron, Josie Long, writers Michael Rosen, Charlie Higson, Ian Rankin and Miranda Sawyer, broadcaster Samira Ahmed, Clare Grogan, Bonnie Greer, Jon Ronson.